ANDREW DENHOLM, Education Correspondent August 25 2005
MEN have larger brains â and higher IQs â than women, according to a controversial new study.
In a paper for the British Journal of Psychology, which is bound to reignite the academic row about gender differences, one of Britain's most controversial academics argues that men are more likely than women to win Nobel prizes and gain academic distinction because they are more intelligent.
Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, who has caused outrage in the past with claims that white people are more intelligent than blacks and that criminal traits are genetic, will publish the work with Paul Irwing, senior lecturer in organisational psychology at Manchester University.
Professor Lynn believes that the differences between the sexes make men better suited to "tasks of high complexity" than their female counterparts.
Dr Irwing told The Times Higher Education Supplement that he would prefer it if their research was wrong. However, after resolving to put "scientific truth" above his personal views, he said he had concluded that there was a very strong case that men not only had larger brains, but had a higher IQ, by about five points, compared with women.
The paper will argue that, while many academics have denied any IQ difference, those who have acknowledged a difference have argued that it is too small to be significant.
Dr Irwing said: "We do not think that a five IQ point difference can be so easily dismissed."
He said that the difference meant there was a much higher proportion of men with higher IQs, with three men to each woman with an IQ above 130 and 5.5 men for each woman with an IQ above 145.
"These different proportions of men and women with high IQ scores are clearly worth speaking of and may go some way to explaining the greater numbers of men achieving distinctions of various kinds for which a high IQ is required, such as chess grandmasters, Fields medallists for mathematics, Nobel prizewinners and the like," he said.
The researchers acknowledge that women now outnumber men at every level of educational achievement, with the sole exception of PhD level, and conclude that the IQ difference cannot sufficiently explain gender inequalities in the workplace â where men still grossly outnumber women at the highest levels.
The paper will argue that there is evidence that at the same level of IQ women are able to "achieve more" than men, "possibly because they are more conscientious and better adapted to sustained periods of hard work". And it will cite a previous study has concluded that IQs in the region of 125 are adequate to "ascend to all levels in the labour market".
"The small male advantage in IQ is, therefore, likely to be of most significance for tasks of high complexity," said Dr Irwing.
Professor Lynn has been accused of racism over his theories and has also been criticised for receiving funding from the New York-based Pioneer Fund, which was said to have had Nazi connections in the 1930s.
He also forecast that genetic engineering combined with natural trends would turn the advanced and the developing countries into two worlds â one a stable, rich society of intelligent individuals, the other populated by people of low IQ and beset by poverty and famine.
Testing questions
1 Three swans and one cat have a total of 11 legs. True or False?
2 If you hang an ordinary wall clock upside down when the time is 3.30pm, the hour hand will point right. True or False?
3 You get 10 pieces of cake by making five diagonal cuts through its centre. True or False?
4 If Marc is taller than Nick and Craig is shorter than Marc, Marc is the tallest. True or False?
5 Three of the following numbers add up to 29: 15, 12, 6, 3, 1.
True or False?
5 correct = Superior intelligence
4 correct = Normal intelligence
3 correct = Dullness
2 correct = Borderline deficiency
1 correct = Feeble-mindedness
So, does that make him more or less credible than your garden-variety witch doctor? "Emeritus" means that he's retired, and "psychology" means he isn't a real scientist - he's a social scientist. I suppose I ought to be glad that he isn't a professor emeritus of sociology. Those rank just below "fishwife" on the Scientific Expert Scale o' Credibility.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/25/2005 17:45 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Looks like Ulster University is about to build a 50 million pound Women's Studies building...
#8
Anyone who has worked with programmers know this is true, but women compensate by being better at cooperative tasks. If you want a one person star then get a man, but if you need a team, then hire women.
#12
Looks like Ulster University is about to build a 50 million pound Women's Studies building...
Oh, come on now! Where are they going to find 50 million pound women? [There, I'll leave that straight line just lying there.]
If men are so much more clever, how come most societies expect them to do the heavy work, support a family, and take out the garbage?
Actually, in a lot of societies, women are expected to do that work, while the men sit around and rest themselves in case the village is attacked by...mammoths. Yeah, that's it.
#13
Some how I don't equate "clever" with intelligence. Weasels and monkeys are clever, they are not however intelligent.
All my Wife expects of me is to love her and defend her with my life if necessary. I do the other stuff I do because I want to not because she makes me or expects it, She doesn't.
#16
Anyone who has worked with programmers know this is true, but women compensate by being better at cooperative tasks. If you want a one person star then get a man, but if you need a team, then hire women.
Cooperative tasks, like accompanying one another to the lady's room.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/25/2005 21:09 Comments ||
Top||
#17
If men are so much more clever, how come most societies expect them to do the heavy work, support a family, and take out the garbage?
You gals ddo garbage too? superb.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/25/2005 21:10 Comments ||
Top||
#18
I've known a couple of women that probably had more prostate problems than men.
#19
I've seen reports on this as saying that the male IQ distribution has a greater standard deviation. There are more males at the high end and at the low end.
After all, more men and women get Darwin Awards.
I may be a software engineer, but I don't know how to include pictures, so go to the link.
This new bikini may look a bit weird but itâs chest great for keeping cool.
Using the latest in swimwear technology, the Evian bikini boasts pockets which are filled with mineral water! And according to boob boffins, the cold water will even help tone, firm and shape your beach body.
The bra's filter funnel means bikini babes can top up the water level at their leisure, controlling how cool they keep their boobs. Sounds like a great way to keep cool while raising temperatures poolside!
#9
Sorry, correction. Would the P-Mate be suitable for aging men with bladder problems? Would this device help direct the stream be directed away from the shoes?
"My first P-Mate experience! I've tried it this morning, simply following the instructions on the packing and it went well in one try! Without making a mess or splattering! I found it really very amusing to do and to see that I'm peeing while standing upright and that the jet landed so well through the spout into the toilet. WOW!! I'm sure that I will use it often, especially during those long walks! Thanks!"
Leonie L.
"About the P-Mate: I really liked it. Easy to use, even if you're wearing jeans. I'm certainly gonna use it more often, especially at festivals and when you're in the outdoors and there are no ladies' toilets available. I look forward to the next outdoor-event, so I can finally drink what I want as well, instead of not drinking because then you have to pee again and you know that's not possible."
Mirjam
New York University's night school is offering up "Hamburger Heaven," a one-night seminar that promises to foster a keener appreciation of America's favorite sandwich. "I'm not really teaching anything, though I'm being paid to teach" instructor George Motz admitted to the New York Post. "It's really more of a hamburger conversation."
Along with a demonstration that there's one born every minute...
Motz, 36, is a bit of an expert on the matter. The Brooklyn-based filmmaker recently completed a movie entitled "Hamburger America," a documentary in which he traveled 12,000 miles around the country looking for the perfect burger.
It used to be at the Bill Jones Drive-in, in San Angelo, Texas, though McIntyre's, about a mile away, was a close second. They're both probably gone now, though...
"People don't treat the hamburger with the amount of respect that they should," lamented Motz. "It's been overlooked for decades."
I don't "respect" food. I may savor it, I may enjoy it, but "respect" is something else entirely.
Continuing-education students who cough up $100 for the non-credit seminar, which takes place Oct. 5, will first watch the movie, then be instructed on hamburger detection.
Gawd. I wish I'd thought of that. I could be rolling in dough.
"Simply put, I'm going to teach them how to spot a great burger," explained Motz. "It's amazing how easy it is to screw up."
I could teach them for less than a hundred bucks: Fresh, not mushy bread, lightly toasted on the grill. Meat broiled, rather than fried, with no filler except (maybe) finely chopped onion, neither mushy red in the middle nor hockey puck overdone, seasoned just enough to bring out flavor, not enough to overpower it. Everything else is condiments, which is presumably the rest of the hundred bucks.
He doesn't want to give away all his secrets, but Motz said look for place that sells a lot of burgers, and makes them simply. "The more you treat the meat, the worse it gets," Motz says.
"That'll be $85, please!"
The course offering has proven so popular that the school has asked Motz to offer it again in the spring.
"They're linin' up three-deep, Perfessor! An' they're all holdin' money!"
Other culinary seminars offered by NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies include "Chinese Characters for Chinese Food Lovers," "Get to Know All-American Cheese" and "Born in Bubbles," an exploration of champagne. This actually sounds kind of cool. I'm a fan of a good (i.e. not fast-food) hamburger. This site is a daily read.
Which pretty much describes what passes for 'Higher Education', most of which is just technical/vocational training for certificates of skill qualifications.
#3
Fred, Fred, Fred. You're not taking this in the proper spirit. How many times have you seen Europeans and Europhile Americans sniffing at hamburgers, as if somehow ground meat on a bun were an insidious cultural force? Their contempt was due to the fact that hamburgers hadn't been properly "appreciated", that is to say, there'd been nowhere that they could shell out a hundred bucks and learn how to evaluate a hamburger like a job applicant, or a wine.
Once they find that you can describe it in long-winded, scholarly, pretentious terms, they'll find a renewed respect for the humble hamburger. Though, probably, not for the US.
By the way, some of the best hamburgers I ever ate were at the Lakeview Truck Stop (which had no lake that I coudl see) on US41 just north of Evansville, Indiana. I also had a darn fine cheeseburger at a tiny dive off Syntagma Square in Athens, where they cooked them on a little sandwich press.
#4
This falls under my "Scarecrow Principle" from the Wizard of Oz. The Wizard told the Scarecrow, "You don't need an education, all you need is a diploma". Pretty well sums up education around here.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/25/2005 13:34 Comments ||
Top||
#5
You should teach those kids how to spot the perfect con instead.
A man in his 90s is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a nursing home. According to the court papers, police charged Louis Napoleon, of Mount Lebanon, with indecent assault and aggravated indecent assault.
The aggravated part comes into play because the victim had slight injury after the alleged attack, and she has a mental disability. She has advanced Alzheimer's disease and had been staying at the Kane Regional Center in Scott Township. The victim is in her 60s. Napoleon is 92.
In papers filed at his arraignment, police say Napoleon, a retired local doctor, went to the Kane Regional Center to visit the woman. A nurse noticed her door was open, but, she didn't see the patient. Then she realized the woman was in the bathroom and that someone else was in there with her. At first, she thought Napoleon was helping the woman use the toilet.
A doctor's exam shows the alleged victim had abrasions.
Police could not interview her because she just is not able to communicate.
Thousands of American white pelicans that abandoned the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in central North Dakota after their chicks mysteriously died appear to have headed across the border to Canada, in southern Manitoba.
"Anything that holds water and fish seems have found a pelican, and even places that don't," said Ken DeSmet, an endangered species biologist for the Manitoba Conservation agency. "It's obvious that they are all over the place in areas you wouldn't normally see them."
"I'm sure they're Chase Lake birds," said Ken Torkelson, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bismarck. Yeah, I'd recognize them anywhere.
Biologists in both countries are baffled about the influx of the big white birds north of the border, and the exodus from the south. The white pelican colony at the Chase Lake refuge has been known as the largest in North America, peaking at 35,466 birds in 2000. The pelicans normally stay at the refuge through September, raising their young and feasting on crawfish, small fish and salamanders from small prairie ponds within a 100-mile radius of the refuge.
Most of the birds in Canada are about 300 miles from the North Dakota refuge, "as the pelican flies," DeSmet said.
And we all know how pelicans fly.
Pelicans have been spotted in Winnipeg in places never seen before, including rainwater containment ponds, Mooi said. Minnows put in the ponds to control mosquitos probably attracted them, he said. Radio transmitters attached to eight pelicans from the Upper Midwest this year showed that the birds traveled throughout the Dakotas, and as far away as Iowa, but none had headed north, Torkelson said. Stealth pelicans?
So, is it:
1. Global warming?
2. Hatred of Bush?
3. Free health care?
4. Higher alcohol content in beer?
#3
Maybe the Lefties and quasi-actors will follow their lead?
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/25/2005 11:41 Comments ||
Top||
#4
A marvelous bird is the pelican
His bill can hold more than his belican
He can store in his beak
Enough food for a week
And I'm darned if I know how the helican
#1
Send in the Marines - INVADE NOW, D*** YOU! The Banana plant must be saved, alongst with beer, coffee, and missing Aruban/Venezuelan beach babes.
If Amerika has CHELSEA, Guam has HANNAH, Saddam has his daughter, and Radic Islam/Spetzlamists have wimin femikazes/babelamists willing to blow themselves for Hillary, where's Chavez's kid???
USSURIISK, Russia - In the mosquito-infested fields of Russia's Far East, Chinese pick tomatoes. In the markets, they sell cheap jeans and backpacks and fix shoes. At construction sites, they rebuild cities.
As China and Russia embark on a new stage of cooperation by holding joint military exercises launched from the Pacific port of Vladivostok, the Chinese presence is growing in this hardscrabble region thousands of miles from Moscow.
It's too early to talk of an imminent Chinese takeover, local experts say, despite such worries by some Russian politicians. Still, they acknowledge that China's hunger for resources and territory as its population and economy boom could eventually make the Far East an alluring target.
"Russia has 30 to 40 years to become an equal partner with China in Asia. ... If Russia doesn't, then China could start to have territorial pretensions," said Mikhail Shinkovskiy, director of the Institute of International Relations and Social Technologies at Vladivostok State University of Economics and Science.
Russia seized the Far East from China in the 1800s, back when Russian imperial ambitions were at their height and China was a weak country that could be pushed around. Now, the tables are turned. China's military is seeking to broaden its influence while Russian forces deteriorate to a shadow of their former Soviet might.
After years of hostility and a 1969 border war between China and the Soviet Union, Beijing and Moscow are now "strategic partners" who last year signed a treaty resolving disputes about how to draw their 2,700-mile-long frontier.
China is keen to buy Russian weapons to help bolster its arsenal, and this week's exercises serve to showcase key items such as Russia's strategic bombers, which can carry nuclear weapons.
In launching the exercises last week, top generals from both countries said the joint military drills were just the latest step in cooperation that extends across many spheres â and is most evident here in the Far East.
Sergei Sim, an independent journalist in Vladivostok who has specialized in interethnic issues, said the Chinese aren't seeking conflict and have a strong lobby in the local government. So far, their main goal appears to be in business.
"Economically, they've already taken over," he said.
Some 50,000 Chinese work legally in Russia's Primoriye region, along the Pacific coast, but their actual number is believed to be twice that, Shinkovskiy said. They earn an average of about $100 a month, half the regular Russian salary but far more than what they could get back home.
At the Ussuriisk bazaar, the region's largest, Russian and Chinese flags fly over the entrance and merchants wear name tags printed in both languages.
Cui Xian, or "Igor" as he's known here, waits for customers at an auto parts stall. The 20-year-old ethnic Korean came to Russia four years ago from China's Jilin province to study but wasn't granted a student visa. Eventually he managed to get a work visa and joined his parents, who immigrated here in 1996.
"I live better here, it's a good life," Cui said in Russian, adding that in China it's difficult to find work with the competition and bribes necessary to get jobs.
The Chinese trade also provides work for Russians such as Svetlana Kamogurtseva, 30, who helps negotiate sales of purses and backpacks for her Chinese boss from a storage container turned market stall. Unable to find work in her nearby hometown, she came to the bazaar 3 1/2 years ago. She makes $5.25 a day.
The bazaar provides work for those who don't have the residence permits required for most jobs, Kamogurtseva said. "If there were other jobs we would do them, but there are no other opportunities."
Still, relations between Russians and Chinese in the Far East are sometimes testy, with Russians exhibiting some dismay over having to serve their onetime poorer neighbors from the south.
"All Chinese are liars," pronounced Konstantin Drassav, a Chinese-speaking tour guide in the regional capital Vladivostok.
China has yet to make inroads here on a higher commercial level: Billboards hawk South Korean mobile phones and TVs, while the roads are filled with right-hand-drive Japanese cars.
In Vladivostok, Chinese tour groups roam dirty streets looking to buy Russian alcohol and chocolate and see the few sights this garrison city has to offer, such as a World War II submarine turned into a museum.
Other attractions include numerous casinos where Chinese can indulge in gambling, which is banned in China. Prostitution is also widespread, fueling sex tourism.
Drassav said every tour group that comes here asserts that the Far East should be assimilated back into China.
"All tourists say this territory was stolen from China," h
#1
Article: "I live better here, it's a good life," Cui said in Russian, adding that in China it's difficult to find work with the competition and bribes necessary to get jobs.
According to my sources, paying bribes to get good jobs is apparently a pretty common thing in parts of China. This doesn't, of course, apply to the bottom-rung factory jobs (which are nonetheless better-paying than working on the family farm).
#2
Well, depends on where you are. In Zhejiang province, it's rather difficult to find enough workers to man an assembly line. It's doable, but it just takes a month or two.
#3
Dragon and the Bear buddies for life? Not likely even if they can manage to hold o"rganized armed bandit formation eradication" military exercises together.
#4
According to my sources, paying bribes to get good jobs is apparently a pretty common thing in parts of China. This doesn't, of course, apply to the bottom-rung factory jobs (which are nonetheless better-paying than working on the family farm).
Being a little ethnocentric here?
And how this is different from most of the world?
#7
NOt that the Chinese aren't hard workers and all but I'd be wary of inviting neighbors over to help develop the underdeveloped underpopulated parts of my nation.
The Russians should instead invite Indians to emigrate. The Russians should bust up the mob in Vladivsotk and create a semi-Free city on the model of Hong Kong. The Russians should apply to the Japanese to build a new trans-siberian bullet train in exchange for those frozen islands the two are always fighting about. The Russians should dump Putin, he's got no ideas and he's done enough damage.
#8
Not shitting on ZF, just pointing out that in fact bribery is the normal way of business throughout most of the world. It's more of a Anglo-Saxon type [thought there are some exceptions] perception that it is not 'normal'. Even then, it can also be found even in America. Basically, its institutionalized in requiring union dues to have a job, just ask the public school teachers who are theoritically working for the state/people.
#9
Great Russian dictators of the past made the same mistake cough "Stalin & friend Hitler" of course we all know how that turned out.
Putin and China going down the same street. China knows well that a war with Tiawan would draw in the US and a huge cost even if victory was achieved and a gain of not much more than national pride and sea ports. The US would still have China hemmed in by bases in Japan and I garantee if China took Tiawan the Phillipine base would be back in full swing in short order not to mention the US would have the PR on thier side after such. Make things worse such a war would play to all of China's weaknesses Navy, Air Power, a garatneed blockade that would starve the chinees dragon. On the flip side Siberia sparsley populated Massive oil reserves and mineral, oil being the major that if China wishes to be able to try the US they need a secure overland Oil source shipping it in will be a no-game with the US stongpoint in the way the Navy and Air Force. Siberia plays to the Chineese strong points, overland army fight, short supply lines for China were Russia will be stretched thin and to supply the Eastern coast will be wrought with attacks all the way by Chineese coming from thier south. The Chineese Navy and Air Force could probably match the Russian. Russia couldnt use the Nuke option because unlike the US were MAD would be one sided with China who only has a handfull of missles able to hit the US on the other side of the world Russia is close and well in range of enough Chineese Nukes to make MAD apply enough to deter a Russian move. Not to mention I would almost be willing to bet that after 08' when Putin becomes pres without term limits esentially dictator for life Russian population will be in a state of border revolution waiting to be lit, that if China hit Siberia a spasley populated area that a WW1 senerio (invasion would result in revolution and gov crumbling and choas) would be very very likely if the Russians lost big in the opening stages which again is very very likely.
Bottom line success on Tiawan is basicly dependent on secure oil transport that is not sea based were the Chineese have decades to challenge the US. Today no matter how freindly the chineese get with Putin they know that Russia will sell them out for the right price. If Siberia was won then Tiawan campain would have the odds of victory mulitiplied by a factor. If lost the Chinees would really be in the same boat as now. Japan didnt start with the big dog the US, nor did Hitler start with thier neighborhood big dogs, the first thing Empire needs is secured resources Tiawan dont offer that and Siberia offers the most with the smallest amount of risk and price compared to the possible gains. Another thought is the old Soviet Satelites that have the benefits with even less risk than Siberia and Russia maynot even be able to make a responce.
I just dont see why China would try to go East little gain and it will take them decades to even be able to challenge the US Navy which will surely be boosted sometime before the Chineese get thier to keep the US advantage. West and North will be the direction big gain plays to Chinas strong points while thier weak points stay defensive to fend off a attack. The Mongols did it.
#10
Godd comment, EU5567, that's been my thoughts on Unions for some time. That's why I don't care for the "Closed Shop".
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/25/2005 13:38 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Hey Raj, I suggest you cool it. Nobody called you or ZF an asshole. Nobody on this site is untouchable, except Fred and the mods (for they hold awesome power). Take a chill pill.
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/25/2005 15:42 Comments ||
Top||
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Taiwan's Cabinet on Wednesday withdrew a special budget for a massive U.S. weapons package, part of a political maneuver aimed at getting the opposition-controlled legislature to pass the long-delayed package. For more than a year, the opposition Nationalist Party and its allies have used their slim legislative majority to hold up a special $15.3 billion appropriation, saying it will spark an arms race with rival China that would bankrupt Taiwan. Included in the package are eight diesel-powered submarines, 12 anti-submarine aircraft, and six Patriot missile batteries.
Cabinet spokesman Cho Jung-tai said the Cabinet would decide next week on a new proposal to finance the weapons, divided between a modified special budget and the regular defense allocation. Cho said the military was still working out the proposal's details. However, he said, the general direction was to move the Patriot missile allocation of more than $3 billion from the special budget to the regular defense budget.
Both come from state coffers, but the defense budget carries more rigorous oversight provisions, suggesting the government believes the new transparency will convince the opposition to drop its long-standing objections to the package.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/25/2005 01:36 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The signal this is gonna send to the US people and Congress here is Taiwan is not ready to defend its own freedom and is depending on having a US "blank check" to basically come and defend them no matter the circumstances. I suspect someone is gonna get this thrown back into their faces rather badly.
#4
Actually Steve its partisan politics at work to trump a bit of national security (in this case Taiwans) again. The White House and some Congress members already warned there would be a backlash if this happened.
#5
"saying it will spark an arms race with rival China"
Is this a serious comment? Damm their LLL's are freekin dummer than ours. Our LLL's may not let us use the military but at least they allow us to have one. China has been steadily raising their military budget popping out subs huge numbers or missles modernization of old stuff hell even working on a carrier the Volakg. I think the "arms race" already started without them.
#1
I think China would most likely engage in a "pre-blockade" action to see how the US reacts. If US CVBGs are ordered to rush into the area, China will have, in their minds, the best excuse in the world to move actual invasion forces to the coast for months of "demonstrations" and "wargames" aka sabre rattling against Taiwan.
At least that is what I think they will do. What they will actually do, I haven't the foggiest.
It is far more likely that China can wait for a "friendly" US government before moving on Taiwan, say 2009, just in time for all the Kilos to be deployed.
#2
"Friendly government" is right, as ole' Bill Clinton during the 1990's treated TAIWAN as PERSONA NON GRATA. basically affirming that iff any US-China war broke o'er Taiwan, and nuke war was realistic, Taiwan was per se expendable, at least for Demokratic Clintonistas. Dare be the same for "America wins=losses", Der Waffen Marx/StalinFrauz Hillaristas!?
#3
The irony is that a "friendly government" in this country would make conflict with the PRC more likely.
Just look at our history--we sent the signal that S.Korea was not in our defense perimeter and it was invaded by NK. In '90, Saddam got the idea that we would acquiesce to his invasion of Kuwait.
In both cases, we ended up having to fight a war.
We'd be better off being firm in both word and deed. Unfortunately, our political leadership often tends to have a short memory.
YOUNG Pacific islanders could be recruited into the Australian defence force under a citizenship-for-military-service plan.
"Jones!"
"Yessir!"
"The enemy has exhausted my patience! Bring up the Samoans!"
A new Pacific Islands Regiment is also being considered under plans to boost military numbers in Australia. Defence Personnel Minister De-Anne Kelly, who has commissioned a review of defence recruitment, has backed the idea in principle. She said it had merit as a way to engage the young people and improve their skills. The review team will include a so-called Generation Y human resources expert, a senior academic and probably Dr Mark Thomson from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Dr Thomson said taking recruits from struggling Pacific island nations was one of several ideas to lift troop numbers. The review panel would also consider sign-on payments, educational incentives, shorter careers and a more varied lifestyle.
Australia's military links with Pacific island nations dates to World War II when the Pacific Islands Regiment was formed.
Australian officers raised and ran the regiment in Papua New Guinea from 1951 to 1975. A re-formed regiment would be staffed by Australian officers and senior NCOs with islanders filling the other ranks. "This would be part of a broader Pacific engagement program and would not just stand alone," Dr Thomson said.
Increased economic prosperity, changing career expectations and family pressures have resulted in recruiting shortfalls in the past few years. Trainee military officers have their HECs fees waived by the Government and skills that are in short supply attract generous retention bonuses. Mrs Kelly said she did not underestimate the challenge for Defence given skills shortages such as the shortfall of 30,000 engineers. "With low unemployment levels, young people are in huge demand," she said.
Nope, I'm certainly not convinced that the French have it in for Lance, are you?
According to French newspaper Le Monde, French police staked out a Discovery Channel hotel during the Tour de France following a tip-off from Italian police. Passing the buck, or someone's looking for cover?
Three days after French sports paper LâEquipe alleged that traces of EPO had been found in a sample of Lance Armstrongâs urine from the 1999 Tour de France by the French Chatenay Malabry anti-doping lab, further reports have emerged claiming that French police staked out a Discovery Channel team hotel during the 2005 Tour following a tip-off by their Italian counterparts.
A report in French newspaper Le Monde on Wednesday repeated allegations from a source which claimed to have access to documentation in the possession of French drugs police in Paris. Among these documents is what is claimed to be a photograph of an unidentified man entering the Discovery Channel team hotel in Grenoble on the night of the Tourâs first rest day, carrying a large blue ice-box. My guess would be champagne...
According to Le Monde, the French policeâs narcotics branch, based in Paris, deployed around six officers in civilian clothes to intercept the same man on the second rest day of the Tour in Pau. Le Monde claims the French police had been told by their Italian counterparts that the man was likely to pay his next visit to the team's lodgings in Pau on Monday, July 18. Large blue ice box = EPO or human growth hormone. Everybody knows you would put narcotics in the rocker panels; I saw that on the French Connection.
Some sources have claimed that the French police received further support from private investigators said to be tracking Armstrong at the 2005 Tour on behalf of Texan insurers SCA Promotions. Want my advice, Closeau? Go tail French & Italian teams; you're far more likely to hit paydirt that way.
Le Monde claims that the undercover officers observed the hotel for some 12 hours, but that the surveillance operation was thwarted when a television crew received a tip-off and revealed the police presence. An investigation into the identity of the man photographed in Grenoble on July 11 is said, by procycling sources, to be ongoing. "Spies! All spies!"
In a video-conference in Washington DC, Armstrong yesterday issued his latest rebuttal of the allegations made by LâEquipe on Monday. âWhen I gave the samples in 1999, there was no EPO in my urine â I can guarantee that,â said the seven-time Tour winner. Like Mucky posted below, he's considering a lawsuit. I hope he doesn't waste his time.
Armstrong has always maintained that he has never used performance-enhancing drugs, pointing to the fact that he has never tested positive for a banned substance in controls sanctioned by any governing body. It's like trying to answer the question 'Have you stopped beating your wife?' What pathetic people, these L'Equipe 'reporters'.
#3
Xb. They don't spend money on defense. They are Socialist. They have some extra bux. They have to spend it somewhere. Ol' Lance's exploits are a swift kick in the ego...
#4
There is a very certain distinct french character type that is nasty, snide, nihilistic, jealous, vicious (in a small rodent sort of manner), utterly infantile, and beyond any hope of redemption. Not a majority of the population by any stretch but they are common. I wish he'd announce that he'll ride one more tour just as brutal punishment to the psyche of that particular segment of French society.
#5
He should keep riding until they shut the f*ck up.
If he tested positive for drugs in 1999 why havent we heard about it until now. Do they know it is 2005?
Brigitte Bardot, the 1950s and 1960s film star turned animal rights campaigner, has called on the French government to halt the reported use by fishermen on the island of Reunion of live puppies and kittens as shark bait.
"It is imperative that the government does something to end this practice," she said in a letter to the minister for French overseas territories, Francois Baroin, a copy of which was given to AFP Thursday.
According to Clicanoo, a newspaper in Reunion, a French island located in the Indian Ocean, a six-month-old puppy was found last month with hooks implanted in its snout and one of its legs.
The French Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) told the daily the dog was the victim of cruel fishermen who attract sharks by throwing puppies or kittens into the water, tied to fishing lines, and wait for the predators to swallow the thrashing animals.
"We don't see that every day, but it's not the first time, either," Marie-Annick Chantrel, the vice-president of the Reunion branch of the SPA, told Clicanoo. "We've already seen cats six or seven months old with hooks in them."
Bardot told Baroin that "unfortunately these are not isolated incidents, and the people of Reunion are the first to be horrified by this despicable barbarity which mars the image of their island."
The campaigner, who runs an animal defence association, said she had written to authorities on the island to have them put a stop to the crime.
Yuck. Animals have no "rights," but I hate things like this.
Posted by: DanNY ||
08/25/2005 22:24 Comments ||
Top||
#9
No idea why that link isn't working.
Perhaps someone else can explain.
Posted by: DanNY ||
08/25/2005 22:27 Comments ||
Top||
#10
ref the bottom of the snopes page - substitute .asp for the .jpg - they won't allow hotlinking
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/25/2005 22:32 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Reunion is kind of in the middle of nowhere, so the allegations are probably true. Still, the fishermen could be from Kenya, Mozambique, Malagasy, the Seychelles, Somalia and Yemen. All these countries have a history of harvesting sharks for food and other uses. I'm not worried much about losing any of my cats - it's 1200 miles to the nearest ocean.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/25/2005 23:21 Comments ||
Top||
#1
Again Lance stands above the crowd of French opportunists and American haters. Stand tall Lance, tell them to piss up a rope, you still kicked the shit out of the French at their national sport. They might try to take your title away but the truth in in the race times and I doubt Hans would accept the winning title, he also has honoor.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/25/2005 20:11 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop on France, like Indurain announcing that he's tanned, rested, and ready...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/25/2005 22:09 Comments ||
Top||
MINSK, Belarus (AP) - Police briefly detained a U.S. diplomat in Belarus, and activists said Wednesday the authorities wanted to prevent him from meeting them. American diplomats expressed concern over the detention and were discussing the incident with Belarusian officials, U.S. Embassy spokesman Alexei Solomakh said. Officials in Belarus' Foreign and Interior Ministries declined comment.
Condi needs to lay some smack down.
A youth group leader said authorities also detained two pro-democracy activists from Georgia, one of three ex-Soviet republics where former opposition figures have come to power in the last two years.
The U.S. government has been a vocal critic of President Alexander Lukashenko, whose government fears opposition attempts to foment political change in this tightly controlled country. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called Lukashenko's regime "the last dictatorship in the center of Europe."
U.S. Embassy political officer Lyle McMillan was held for about 40 minutes on Tuesday, said Galina Skorokhod, an activist in the city of Gomel, where the diplomat was detained. She said the diplomat had been scheduled to meet with representatives of a variety of non-governmental organizations in a building where the groups have offices in the city, 185 miles southeast of the capital, Minsk.
Foreign diplomats frequently meet with NGOs to keep abreast of developments in society and to express support for the groups, which often face harassment in authoritarian countries such as Belarus.
Police notified the NGOs on the eve of the meeting that the building was off limits because of a search for a bomb on the premises. The venue for the meeting was then moved to a private apartment, Skorokhod said, but police showed up, saying they were carrying out ID checks as part of an operation to detect illegal migrants or criminals. That is when they detained the diplomat, she said in a telephone interview. "It's obvious that the police's main goal was to break up (our) meeting, which they did," Skorokhod said.
They act like they're the KGB or something.
In the past two months, Belarus has closed 80 percent of the local offices of three major parties, jailed activists and levied massive fines against the few remaining independent newspapers, acting State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
On Wednesday, two Georgians who took part in the "Rose Revolution" protests that brought down longtime President Eduard Shevardnadze in late 2003 were detained in Minsk, said Vladimir Kobets, leader of the Belarusian opposition youth group Zubr. Kobets told The Associated Press that he and the Georgian activists, Georgy Kandelaki and Luka Tsuladze, were seized by men in plainclothes and taken to a police station, where Kobets said he was released after questioning. Kobets said all the Georgians' documents were in order and no reason was given for the detentions. Police and other officials declined to comment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/25/2005 01:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Guess who nominated Judge Jeffrey White? You betcha, Bubba! He was part of a deal to get W's nominees a hearing and allowed in by the Rep's
SAN FRANCISCO: A federal judge here said environmental groups and four U.S. cities can sue federal development agencies on allegations the overseas projects they financially back contribute to global warming. The decision Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White is the first to say that groups alleging global warming have a right to sue. "This is the first decision in the country to say that climate change causes sufficient injury to give a plaintiff standing, to open the courthouse door," said Ronald Shems, a Vermont attorney representing Friends of the Earth.
Usually you have to prove injury occurred to get a verdict, but lately that seems optional ...
That group, in addition to Greenpeace and the cities of Boulder, Colo., Santa Monica, Oakland and Arcata, Calif., sued Overseas Private Investment Corp. and the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Those government agencies provide loans and insure billions of dollars of U.S. investors' money for development projects overseas. Many of the projects are power plants that emit greenhouses gases that the groups allege cause global warming.
So developing countries can't have power plants 'cause they're ucky, which means they have no power, which means they stay destitute, which means the liberal citizens of Boulder, Santa Monica, Arcata and Oakland will blame George Bush for global poverty. Got it.
The coalition argues that the National Environmental Policy Act, the law requiring environmental assessments of proposed development projects in the United States, should apply to the U.S.-backed projects overseas. The U.S. law should apply, they say, because those developments are contributing to the degradation of the U.S. environment via global warming.
The two government agencies claimed that U.S. environmental regulations do not apply to overseas projects, and that the courts have no right to intervene in those agencies' affairs.
Congress could have said this if it wanted to, but it didn't, which means a judge will have to 'find' it in there somehow. Seems like they found the judge to do just that.
Still, the judge's ruling was narrow. White did not rule whether those agencies must perform environmental assessments of projects they help fund, but simply said the groups have a right to sue. If White's decision stands, the issue of whether U.S. environmental rules apply to the projects backed by the agencies likely will be litigated, Shems said.
Shems noted that, even if he ultimately wins the case, that doesn't mean a given project would be blocked even if an environmental analysis is performed and highlights severe environmental damage it would cause. "The first step in getting a handle on climate change is to find out what the sources are and get an inventory," he said.
The suit claims 8 percent of the world's greenhouse gases come from projects supported by the two agencies.
You've come this far, a little more BS can't hurt your chances ...
Linda Formella, a spokeswoman with Export-Import Bank, said the agency, which supported nearly $18 billion in exports last year, does not comment on pending litigation. The Overseas Private Investment Corp. did not immediately return calls seeking comment. The case is Friends of the Earth v. Watson, 02-4106. This will be overturned. Time to pressure Specter to support GOP judges as much as he does Dems
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/25/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Friends of the Earth v. Watson"
More like Fiends of the Earth. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/25/2005 0:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
This could get really interesting if the Feds bring in high-powered scientists to demonstrate that either 1) global warming isn't real, or that it isn't significant when measured over geologic time scales ("Gosh, it was a lot warmer when Jesus walked the earth!"), or 2) the significant global warming gas is water vapour, which can't be controlled, and anyway, nothing the U.S. has financed is anything like what China and India do normally.
Not that I think that'll fly in San Francisco, but the higher the case goes through the Appeals levels, the more likely such arguments are to be taken seriously, and the more the American -- and likely World! -- public will be exposed to the science.
#4
Actually, this is an opporunity for the Democrats to salvage their position. A quick notice of impeachment to the judge for exceeding this authority will reestablish the balance of powers of the branches of government and lessen the consequences of a judiciary dominated by appointees of the Republicans. To do nothing will forfeit the last branch of government while that branch still has significant power to dictate to society. Cripple it now, or suffer exile from all the centers of power.
#6
This is beginning to look like the Michael Crichton novel State of Fear. Maybe the judge should read the forest of footnotes on Global Warming⢠in the book first before he goes off half cocked. Or not. "Don't confuse me with the facts."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/25/2005 11:46 Comments ||
Top||
#7
AP, reminds me of what we were talking about last night.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/25/2005 12:28 Comments ||
Top||
#8
told ya, AP!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/25/2005 12:34 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Good things about global warming (if it were true instead of a figment of the looney lefts' imagination):
1. Don't have to move to Florida to get warm.
2. Don't have to shovel snow.
3. Don't need snow tires or snow blowers.
4. Heart attacks associated with snow shoveling will be elimated.
5. Can go swimming all the time.
6. Palm trees can be grown in the back yard.
7. Cars will not get cancer from salt on the highways.
8. Research dollars can be directed towards something useful.
#10
sh*t! we must already have global warming in San Diego!
sorry...
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/25/2005 21:59 Comments ||
Top||
#11
The suit claims 8 percent of the world's greenhouse gases come from projects supported by the two agencies.
ROTFLMAO - I wonder if these idiots have ever called up any truly SCIENTIFIC information on greenhouse gasses. Note that they don't say 8% of "carbon dioxide", but "8% of greenhouse gasses". Water vapor makes up 95% of ALL greenhouse gasses, with carbon dioxide running about 4.3%. The sun puts more water vapor in the atmosphere every day than all the burning of coal, gas, wood, or any other flamable substance does in a year. The amount of CO2 pushed into the atmosphere by a single volcano erupting for three weeks is greater than all the automobiles in the world can muster in a year or more. Carbon Dioxide emissions and global warming are just boogeymen the Left tries to use to gain power over the rest of us.
It's going to be quite a shock to these bully-boys if the sun begins to cool again, as it seems to be doing. We just went through a "solar maximum" - a period of maximum solar output and minimum sunspot activity. As the solar output decreases, and sunspot activity increases, watch temperatures cool.
Maybe we can stake Al Gore to the top of Pikes Peak as a sacrifice to the "gods of global warming". Since the Left is using this for all it's worth, why can't the rest of us?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/25/2005 23:47 Comments ||
Top||
...Scene 4. An army of Angelina Jolie clones is roaming north Tehran, from the malls and cafes of trendy Vanak Street to the upper class suburb of Eliyaheh. Jolie is the ultimate feminist symbol in Tehran. The reason is simple: she looks Persian. And she embodies the image of the ultimate temptress - the bete noire of the Islamic regime, obsessed with female virtue. The black chador, compulsory from 1979 onwards, was supposed to master the legendary power of seduction of the Persian woman. In south Tehran, the chador still ranks a roughly 50% approval rate. But on the other side of town, the preferred composite look goes something like this: colorful Chanel or Hermes scarf, barely disguising a fashionable hairstyle; tons of make up (preferably Mac); Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses; a short, tight, light overcoat posing as a chador; designer jeans; and illegally imported Ferragamo shoes. The miniskirt is not back, yet, but some more adventurous temptresses are already showing off golden ankle bracelets, something that in Khomeini times would have landed them in jail. No wonder testosterone levels are on red alert: Tehran men simply can't stop talking about "all the pretty girls".
A pretty young lady from Eliyaheh, drenched in Chanel and Hermes, wouldn't be caught dead shopping in "medieval" Tehran bazaars, "over there" in the south side of town (and local taxi drivers wouldn't even know how to take her back to north Tehran): a megamall in Dubai would be a different proposition entirely. On Thursday nights the pretty young one takes ecstasy at US$2 a pop and goes cruising in dad's made-in-Iran Peugeot on secluded, tree-lined Fereshte Street, listening to Russian techno. On her holidays, she goes to Goa in India or Malaysia, and if dad is really part of "those people", London or LA (or Tehrangeles, as it is locally known, the largest Iranian population in any city outside of Iran). To master the killer Jolie look, she just needs to buy a pirated video CD of Mr and Mrs Smith, a Jolie-Brad Pitt movie, for less than $3. Talk about "cultural invasion"...
Recently, South Africa Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma questioned the wisdom of "smart sanctions" imposed on the Zimbabwean government by Western countries, particularly the European Union (EU). How can you attract foreign investments if your country is the target of international sanctions, she argued?
Fair enough, you might think, especially when Mugabe is putting so much effort in creating a friendly business environment to reassure investors and entice them to put their money in Zimbabwe:
A bill forcing all foreign-owned mining companies operating in Zimbabwe to cede 30% of their shares to indigenous business people is ready to be tabled in parliament.
A slate of amendments that critics warn will seriously reduce constitutional protections and freedoms in Zimbabwe cleared a first vote in Parliament.
Zimbabwean officials want custom duties to be paid for about 6 000 blankets given by South Africans to victims of the government's recent mass demolitions campaign.
Zimbabwe, which is battling a host of economic challenges, will become a prosperous country through "God's grace and intervention", said vice-president Joyce Mujuru.
A PROTRACTED price war between bakers and the government, resistant to free-market principles, has had a devastating impact on the baking industry.
The annual inflation rate soared to 254.8% at the end of July, up from 164.3% in June, according to official statistics.
About 5 000 starving families in Zimbabwe could be fed for a month. There's just one snag: red tape [waiting for a clearance certificate from President Robert Mugabe's government] is keeping the trucks carrying the food from reaching their destination.
As the trial of a High Court judge arrested for allegedly obstructing the course of justice gets underway in Zimbabwe, law experts say the proceedings are likely to bring the independence of the judiciary under close scrutiny once more.
#7
He's gone out of his f*cking mind! He took away most of the white farms, he's stealing 30% of the mines, now he wants foreign investors to lay out cash for other business ventures? On the other hand, there are about 300,000 ready and willing people in the local labor pool.
#8
Zimbabwe is run by a mad hatter. It is a country that has gone totally off the deep end. There is only one way to even begin to get the country off the brink and that is to remove Zim-Bob, one way or another. The fact that this has not happened in years also speaks to the the total lack of any alternate leadership in the wings. Any hope has departed this poor basket case of a country. Heart of Darkness.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/25/2005 21:26 Comments ||
Top||
#9
soon to be run into the ground: SA
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/25/2005 21:54 Comments ||
Top||
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Militias of Islamic courts on Tuesday began pulling down stalls suspected of selling wine, marijuana and other drugs in Somalia's capital, a militia leader and an Islamic court official said. Witnesses said the militiamen also confiscated equipment from two video halls during their effort to enforce sharia - or Islamic law.
Six people have been arrested accused of dealing in wine, marijuana and other drugs prohibited under sharia, and militiamen allegedly found an unspecified quantity of drugs inside the demolished iron sheet stalls, said Mohamed Duale Hashi, a commander of the Islamic courts' militias in Mogadishu.
Wonder if they arrested any of the qat sellers.
Hashi said militiamen targeted drug dealers also because they were seen as responsible for robbery and insecurity at a busy road junction in southern Mogadishu.
Sheikh Ahmed Mo'alin Yusuf, a leader of the Islamic courts, said the demolitions are the beginning of an anti-drug campaign organized by the Islamic Courts Union. "We want to fight against every thing that can spread obnoxious misconduct within this Muslim community and the use of narcotics and other toxic drugs," he said.
Many Mogadishu residents rely on makeshift stalls to make a living selling different goods.
Somalia has not had a government or a functioning economy since forever warlords ousted long-standing dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/25/2005 01:40 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Prolly just folks not friends of Ossama that got hit.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
